Kilkenny Golf Club also received a sports grant of €42,000 in 2017. Stock image: Sportsfile
A golf club at the centre of a dispute over the illegal demolition of a house and burial of asbestos waste received over €100,000 in a sports grant this week.
Kilkenny Golf Club was awarded €110,591 to develop a “full practice hub facility” at its grounds outside Kilkenny city.
It is the second time in recent years that the club received a sports grant, getting €42,000 in 2017.
Since then it has emerged the club is under scrutiny for a bizarre series of events involving a house it owned on the fringes of the course.
A whistleblower revealed that the house and its outbuildings were demolished in 2016 and the site was cleared for car parking, all without planning permission.
Rubble from the buildings, which included asbestos roofing, was buried in a field adjacent to the golf club but leased for farming.
No permission was sought to use the field as a waste disposal site which Kilkenny County Council has now deemed “hazardous” and “injurious to public health”.
The council granted the club retention permission for the demolition works earlier this year but refused permission to retain the dump. However, the decision to regularise the demolition works was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by a third party and a decision is overdue.
The council is waiting for the appeal to conclude before beginning enforcement action over the dump and will also have to prosecute for illegal demolition if that permission is overturned. The Department of Tourism and Sport would not say if it was aware of the issues at the club when approving the funding application.
It said: “All allocations under the Community Sport Facilities Fund are provisional until certain terms and conditions are met. The exact terms and conditions depend on the value and purpose of the grant and how much money the relevant organisation has been allocated in the past.”
Honorary secretary of Kilkenny Golf Club, Dermot Doyle said the club was entitled to make the grant application.
“The adjudication of the application was carried out by the competent authority using its criteria,” he said.
“No contact was made between the competent authority administering the grant applications and Kilkenny Golf Club regarding planning issues.
“Kilkenny Golf Club is addressing the planning matters in an open and transparent manner and will comply fully with the decisions of the relevant planning and environmental authorities.”